Nighteyes: Before ED I made some effect, new explosions for the community. But since then I redid many of the old ED effects, including a new shockwave, flak, explosions and other cool stuff

Shiv: Plenty of cutscenes have been planned that Nighteyes is going to render

Stormkeeper:That's quite a lot. Do you get paid?

Nighteyes: No, its a hobby

Snail: Amount of work he does he should get paid, really. Here's another snippet from the opening cinematic.

Stormkeeper:So, what exactly is ED's premise? Snail?

Snail: ED is basically one possible conclusion to the FreeSpace storyline... The aim of the mod is basically to be as close to the original two games while adding in something new and exciting into the mix. Sort of like Inferno, but a bit smaller in scale. The premise is more or less what the GTVA will find when they re-enter Sol.

Shiv: In addition, we're going to reveal secrets about Bosch, ETAK, Colossus an many other things.

Stormkeeper:So will we be seeing a lot of familiar ships?

Snail: A lot of familiar ships mixed in with a few new ones

Shiv: I wouldn't say that Snail.

Snail: New ones including the ones we've seen before in StratComm's fleet pack, with a few original ones made by our own modders.

Shiv: We've got currently lots of our exclusive stuff.

Stormkeeper:But storywise; basically it's a bridge of some sort between FS1 and 2?

Snail: It aims to resolve the mysteries of the FreeSpace universe while taking the player on one hell of a wild trip.

Stormkeeper:What sort of mysteries?

Snail: What happened to Bosch...

Nighteyes: I wouldn't say its a bridge between FS1 and FS2... its more like a continuation of FS2...

Nighteyes: We are striving to give a real and satisfying conclusion to the FS saga

Shiv: Right now we're preparing the first Act, similar to FS: Darkness Rising/FS2: Colossus. We want to release something faster for you, instead of keeping our stuff private for ages

Snail: Earth Defense's development cycle's a pretty interesting one, it started out as a Polish mod I believe... Originally we were part of a larger mod known as the Phoenix Project, which is now dead.

Shiv: Exactly.

Snail: Since then we've basically completely re-imagined the entire mod. This means, that we've re-imagined it in June 2008. The "old" Earth Defense ended with the demo - that tangent is basically over now. The Earth Defense Demo is essentially an entirely different mod from the current material we have.

Shiv: Just forget it and prepare for something much better.

Snail: Put it this way, there isn't even a fleeting resemblance.

Stormkeeper: Phoenix Project? What was that?

Snail: The Phoenix Project is a perfect example of over-ambition completely killing a project. It was supposed to have over 100 missions and like a thousand new ships or something. Because we were part of this umbrella project, Earth Defense really went absolutely nowhere.

Stormkeeper: 100 missions and a thousand new ships. That sounds slightly like inferno, but not even inferno has 1k ships.

Snail: The culmination of this failure really came when there was some last-ditch attempt to release the Earth Defense Demo before Christmas, which was only 50% complete at the time

Stormkeeper: Where you in the ED team then?

Snail: The Earth Defense Demo was made by shiv alone

Stormkeeper: Shiv solo'd ED demo?

Snail: On a very accelerated schedule that basically meant every mission had to be completed within less than a month or so, with a small amount of help from Hery Sasta, known on HLP as "Hery". It really should come as no surprise that when the demo was released it was a bug-ridden mess - It was only half complete at the best when released. After that, Earth Defense went in a completely new direction.

Shiv: I was alone in the end of 2007

Nighteyes: Hmm didn't it die a bit after that demo?

Shiv: I knew that I needed a team...

Snail: And a large recruiting drive started.

Shiv: Yep, and it wasn't easy. The majority of people thought it was a project that wasn't worth any interest.

Snail: By June 2008, we had a completely new team - The only one left of the 'old breed' was Shiv, really... The Phoenix Project died long before this, with barely a mission done IIRC.

Stormkeeper:How big was the Phoenix Project team?

Shiv: Let me check ... 15 people, 95% of them were Polish modders

Snail: It was way too ambitious from the start, and being part of that really dragged ED down.

Stormkeeper:So Phoenix was a overly ambitious mod. That eventually failed. And ED rose from the ashes?

Snail: Yeah, the first half of 2008 was basically a huge recruitment drive. When the Phoenix Project died, the core staff of ED was reduced to basically just Shiv.

Snail: The Achilles and Agias are both by peterv ... Who is awesome ... The Hera is by blowfish ... Who is also awesome ... The textures are all by FreeSpaceKing, who's awesomeness is also notable.

Qazwsx: Indeed. Very notable. Actually, if I recall correctly, I forgot the normal maps in that render

Stormkeeper:Hmmm. Definitely awesome ... Who’s your story writer?

Shiv: Snail with help of General Batutta. They're doing an excellent job, I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the ED plot; however only a little will be revealed in Act I. Act I is only a introduction into something MUCH bigger

Snail: Yeah, same as how the first Act of FS1 was basically just an intro. The real stuff starts happening a bit later on

Shiv: The real action starts in Acts II and III. However the mission design in Act I will compensate; it’s connected with our backstory, music, effects and models.

Snail: Simultaneously, the Terrans are attempting to re-open the Sol Jump Corridor.

Shiv: And then the Action starts

Stormkeeper:So the primary ED forum is Game Warden?

Shiv: Yep, however not many people visit Game Warden, what is a big shame

Stormkeeper:Quite... So 30 missions, right?

Shiv: yeah

Stormkeeper:Split into how many 'arcs'?

Snail: 3, possibly with a few side campaigns.

Stormkeeper:10 each?

Snail: 30 missions, in 3 acts, 10 missions in each act.

Nighteyes: Hopefully we will have a start and ending cutscene for each act, but for now I have plenty of work to do on the Intro

Stormkeeper:So will all 3 acts be released as one, or will it be a part 1/part 2 that kinda stuff.[/color]

Snail: Well, Act 1 will be released separately. The next 2 acts will probably be released separately too ... Or as a full set, depending on the development schedule and how much time it takes to get it done.

Shiv: At the end you'll get a 30 mission campaign just like FS and FS2.

Stormkeeper:So it's been 2 years in development? What were your biggest obstacles?

Snail: The biggest obstacle has been trying to progress on all fronts at once

Shiv: Explain

Snail: Naturally, changing one thing will really heavily affect others; changes in the plot can cause major setbacks in different areas of development, s uch as cutscenes, missions, etc.

Shiv: Yep, so such a huge mod it's a hard thing.

Snail: However, models and maps aren't affected as such, which is why it might appear at first that only models are progressing.

Shiv: It happens 20 years after Capella, so there's loads of stuff that'd change

Snail: Which is why some people might whine a bit.

Shiv: But don't think of us like a model-pack, our main feature is the plot.

Snail: With General Battuta onboard, the plot has stabilised, and missions are progressing. In the last 2 months, more progress has been made on the missions than in the whole of last year

Stormkeeper:So the good General is a FREDer?

Shiv: Nope, he's the plot guy. We want to finish FREDding Act I before 2010 and start voice acting them

Snail: He designed our missions scripts

Stormkeeper:So ED will be VA'd ?

Snail: Nominally, but if it takes too long we might not

Stormkeeper:So is casting in progress?

Shiv: We didn't start casting yet, I'm planning to start it somewhere in December 2009/January 2010, but I can't promise, everything can change in the schedule.

Snail: Development schedule is extremely liquid

Stormkeeper:Yea, I realised that.

Snail: But we're trying to avoid a Duke Nukem Forever.

Nighteyes: Well, it’s not so liquid in my opinion, we have a destination, and we’ll get to it

Snail: In my opinion, with a bit of dedication it could be out soon

Shiv: I agree.

Snail: procrastination is really the biggest obstacle

Stormkeeper:It always is ... So how finished is ED?

Snail: Well, it's hard to say. A lot of things are done, but a lot of things are also going to change.

Shiv: But majority of Act I models assets is done.

Stormkeeper:So Act 1 is mostly complete?

Snail: I wouldn't say that, FREDding is progressing at a fair pace.But things like ships, models, etc. are probably going to be replaced or improved.

Stormkeeper:So out of 10; how many missions are complete?

Snail: We have the first 4 mostly done, which were basically finished in the last 2 months or so.

Stormkeeper:So after the 10 missions are done, what else is there?

Nighteyes: The next 10

Snail: ED is a pretty long-term project. The next 2 acts probably won't be released for a while.

Shiv: But it's worth waiting, trust me

Snail: Everyone is working on Act 1 at the moment.

Shiv: We've got some special things; from a modding point of view, we'll give you many custom Shivan models; the community didn't have many of them previously. Now it's going to change.

Re: Phoenixes and Earth Defense

Cool stuff. I enjoyed that piece of backstory you posted at GW, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you expand on it in the campaign proper. I'm really digging those music samples, too; it's great that you guys were able to get a professional composer on-board.